...for the drivers of lorries in these high winds.
When we're asked by a new driver how fast to drive in gales, we always ask them how fast they want to slide down the road on their side.
If you see one struggling, going slow or swerving imagine what it would be like to be driving it.
Don't try and overtake if it means the prevailing wind could blow it your way.
There is nothing a driver can do to prevent this happening, other than park up and sit it out, which makes them unpopular with both the boss and the customer.
Someone always tells you, that Joe Bloggs came/went down that road and didn't get blown over.
This wind is set to last until tomorrow, and it's the worst sort we can gave because it's not constant. It gusts with speeds reaching up to 75MPH and there's no indication as to when the gusts will come.
A constant high wind speed is a lot easier for a lorry driver to deal with.
There was so many lorries blown over yesterday throughout the whole country and from experience, I can tell you it's not a pleasant thing to happen.
My course was cancelled yesterday at 12 noon, when it became apparent that with 96 vehicles on the road network, it was no longer going to be possible to get 10 of them back before 6pm because of hold ups with accidents and drivers parking up because they felt it was too bad to continue.
Well done to to those drivers who parked up and faced the flak from one and all. I always had the opinion that when I left the yard, I was the Captain of the ship and made the decisions in these sort of situations.
If you got held up yesterday, or if you're on the road today this post is just to try and help you understand the situation a bit better.
Pat
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Thanks Martin.
I'm not asking for sympathy for the drivers because it really is just a small part of the job for us, but a better understanding between all road users.
Pat
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Curtainsiders are driven in high winds with the curtains open to make them safer.
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They are, but it's not a good recommended practice.
The roof can often peel off and the stability of the build of the trailer relies upon the tension from roof to rail of the curtains.
If you have a full load of cardboard weighing all of 2 tonne it's not a good idea to get it wet, either!
Pat
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Pat, I'm going to start a thread about the perils of my job and seek some understanding and sympathy from the on-line community! Maybe not... xx
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>> Pat, I'm going to start a thread about the perils of my job and seek
>> some understanding and sympathy from the on-line community! Maybe not... xx
>>
Doughnut poisoning ? :-)
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...Doughnut poisoning ? :-)...
Super Tax on the pension?
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How did I know someone would knock me for posting that thread, Woodster?
It's simply because the general public prefer to sit and moan in a traffic jam, than have an understanding that what's causing it really is no-one's fault.
Mock me as much as you like Woodster, but there is one piece of sound advice in there for car drivers that I would have appreciated when I first passed my car test.
I really do wonder sometimes why I bother.
Pat
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i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/Veeeight/Picture1.jpg
Pat
Edit: Mods can you correct this link please, I don't know why this never works for me.
Done - all you need to do is post the link without using the HTML [IMG] command which you would use on something like v-bulletin.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 5 Feb 11 at 16:51
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Excellent initial post, Pat. I absolutely detest driving double deckers in this weather. I once had to drive along the M61 straddling lanes one and two as I was being blown from lane one to lane two so much. If that makes sense... :-)
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I can imagine what that's like Badwolf, you're cargo is far more precious than ours and not so easy to replace.
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Sat 5 Feb 11 at 09:03
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Pat,
Not sure that Woodster was having a pop, maybe just his Job sense of humour - you and I both know coppers are a breed apart.
Blowing this thread back on topic, I had a short trundle down the A1(M) yesterday.
I saw one smallish rigid lorry with its curtains tied back.
Another full-size artic was parked up under a bridge, it looked like the curtain had blown out on one side.
The nearside of the artic was about six inches from the parapet, no chance of getting blown over under there.
A bit further on, a motorcyclist had given up and pulled over.
As you said, the wind was buffeting.
My car is fairly heavy with wide tyres and a widish track.
Being blown about was unnerving, but I don't think there was much danger provided I didn't panic and twitch the steering wheel.
I reduced cruise to about 60mph, and tried to spend as little time as possible beside lorries, but I do that anyway.
Hang back a little to make a gap, then accelerate gently past.
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Spare a thought for me. My snow shovel blew into the garden over the road. Just had to retrieve it in my jimjams.
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I think Woodster sometimes forgets that to us, he is just a member of the public.
Pat
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>> [IMG]i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/Veeeight/Picture1.jpg[/IMG]
>>
>> Pat
>>
>> Edit: Mods can you correct this link please, I don't know why this never works
>> for me.
>>
It doesn't work because you have included the " [IMG] " html tags. Leave then out like I have done below, and it should work (fingers crossed)
i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/Veeeight/Picture1.jpg
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Thanks John:)
I have to include them on other forums and have always had to ask the mods to correct it on here.
An explanation would have saved them the trouble!
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Sat 5 Feb 11 at 09:47
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Bubble-cars have the same problem. ;>)
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>> An explanation would have saved them the trouble!
I thought one of us previously did?
Anyway, I've edited your post further up now, before seeing John H had also done it.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 5 Feb 11 at 16:52
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Thanks VX, you may have done and it went over my head:)
Pat
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Pat,
If driving in high winds is such a dangerous problem for lorry drivers and motorists around them, why don't they just park up and sit it out. I know the businesses wouldn't like a lorry parked up for hours, but it would be safer in the long run. Having large lorries strewn across roads and motorways does not help anyone, notwithstanding the deaths and injuries caused.
Seems crazy to venture out with the outcome you describe in your OP. Maybe there should be a maximum wind speed on motorways that prohibit high siders in future. I think planes can be grounded if winds are too high. And how many days a year do winds across the country hit 70 mph. Very few, so the hours or days lost should not have such a great impact.
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its not that simple though
there are various bits of road all over the country that get crosswinds so even on a fairly balmy day a large wagon can get caught out
a friend of mine once refused to take a luton out one day and his mate drove it and it went over on its side badly
i had been in the same van with a greedy body back on it and going up to cumbria it was lifted sideways and you could feel it lose all drive then snatch again as the wheels hit terror firrmar
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...Maybe there should be a maximum wind speed on motorways that prohibit high siders in future...
In high winds the A66 from Scotch Corner across to Cumbria is often closed to high siders, it was yesterday.
Not sure who makes the decision, but the announcement is made by Durham Police.
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Good post Pat,
Goodness knows what it's like driving a 40 odd tonner in these winds - it was bad enough in that Smart car I delivered the other day!!!
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As Pat says, it's the gusts that make it tricky.
The red arrows are the gusty ones. Hover to see the wind and gust speed.
www.xcweather.co.uk/
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Pat, you have my every sympathy.
On Thurs I was to go up to my sister's in Livingston to collect a wardrobe in my work's Transit.
I left Glasgow and was sitting on Ballater St in stationary traffic, across the road from a very high tower block. The wind was horrendous and I actually found myself looking round the cab and working out what way I wanted my head to go if the thing went over.
Thankfully it didn't but I decided not to go for the wardrobe that night!
Have you been in a wagon when it has went over?
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Pat, you misread me, I was having a sideways snipe at my own job and inviting all the silly snipes in return! I suppose you're all tucked up in bed whilst I've just got back from work.
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Yes I have Bobby, it's fairly well documented here.
www.pda-uk.org/driversjournals/stories/pats-story.html
but not something I'm proud of.
Sorry Woodster, I misunderstood your humour, I should have known better really since it happens so often to me:)
Bet you're all tucked up now though, while I'm up!
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Sun 6 Feb 11 at 05:22
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Nice write up Pat - respect !
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While we're sparing thoughts...
Spare a thought for me chaps. I've been told at very short notice to boot, that I've got to go to Cheshire Oaks today.
:-((((
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Wow Humph that puts Pat's trials and tribulations into perspective.......I went there in 09 I think whilst I waited for my bike from the nearby BMW emporium - horrible place....
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Hard luck. It could be worse though, it could have been The Trafford Centre.
John
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It's a far far better thing I do now....etc.
:-(
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I thought he meant a race meeting.
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I mean they don't even have a man-cave in Cheshire Oaks...
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Back now. You can't really explain it to people who've never been. Must be like when soldiers can't bring themselves to speak about what they've lived through.
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I got clouted on the head on Friday night by the pole at the end of a wayward open lorry curtain - I was specifically watching out for them as well. It was in the yard, wind blowing approx 30mph. Smarted a bit, I can tell you.
One of our drivers opened his cab door at an RDC on Friday morning only for the wind to whip it round 180°, snapping one of the hinges and bending the other. A 100 mile drive back, 7ft off the ground with an ill-fitting drivers door tied shut but still letting in the rain can't have been much fun.
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Sun 6 Feb 11 at 11:07
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Just read your short book Pat. Concise, clear, warm and interesting. Nicely laid out too.
What was all that faffing about your lack of literary skills making you too shy to post among all the superpedants and rottweiler jokesters? Faugh! You were just coming the poor mouth as an Irishman might put it...
Good stuff Pat.
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"Just read your short book Pat. Concise, clear, warm and interesting. Nicely laid out too."
Me too! V. interesting and you are obviously a very strong character to have made your way so succesfully in that business!
Oddly enough, I always wanted to be truck driver and promised myself I would try to get an HGV kicence when I retired (if only, like you initially, to set myself a challenge!) However, a job delivering cars came up and I took that. My ex-colleagues and wife think I am mad to be getting up at stupid o'clock to drive up to Scotland or down to Cornwall, but there's something about seeing the dawn come up when you are on the road. I'm sometimes a junior trucker with a transporter (single car truck with trailer) and I pretend I'm a proper truck driver and stay at truck stops overnight and chat to the real truckers while having a magnificent full English (or Scottish!) breakfast! Nothing like you have done of course, but I love it. After reading your account I'm not sure I could cope with being a real trucker!
Just to show my ignorance what is a "handball" load?
Phil
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Excellent read, nice one Pat.
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Enjoyed the read - I reckon there could be a full length book there for a ghost writer.
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...Just to show my ignorance what is a "handball" load?...
Loading - or unloading - the load by hand.
I've come across the term in court in cigarette smuggling cases.
The smuggler hires a few blokes to 'handball' the thousands of cartons off the lorry into vans and cars for distribution.
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>> ...Just to show my ignorance what is a "handball" load?...
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>> Loading - or unloading - the load by hand.
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Correct..... and damned hard work.
Get a fair bit of it in my job, mostly shops and the more old-fashioned farms. Like this one.......
tinyurl.com/679wa8x
Like many of the jobs on haulage, it's largely technique rather than brute strength; I've seen seventy-odd year old farmers tip a four-ton load quicker than a couple of strapping teenage rugby players.
Most bags weigh no more than 25kg now, half a hundredweight in old money. When I first started on this job in the early 80's, cement was still in hundredweight bags; unload a few tons of that and you know you've done a day's work, the old-timers on that job had no fingerprints because the lime in the cement burnt their hands smooth.
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Yes, a good insight into a world now passed.
Thanks for that nostalgia trip Pat.
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I have a slightly different view of the humble Cypriot potato now !
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You are a proper truck driver Phil, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!
As HM says handball loads were 22 tonnes of 25kilo bags which were dumped onto the end of your trailer on a dock pallet which held a couple of ton.
We had to get them off that and stack them on the deck, or on pallets on our own trailers.
The worst ones were in June when the season was almost over and they were known as 'wets'. In other words most of the potatoes were soft and rotten. The load didn't ride well and the front of me didn't smell well after doing that either!
That account ends almost 15 years ago at a particularly sad time in my life, and I somehow have never got around to updating the last happy years of my driving career, because looking back was something I didn't want to do but it needs doing and I really must get around to it.
Pat
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Spare a thought... - MD
